The Law Society’s recommendations for a common set of standards were published as part of a guidance document on 6 November, with the standout focus being on how partner remuneration is included in gender pay gap reporting.

Recommendations include firms distinguishing between equity and non-equity partners, publishing a full time equivalent (FTE) compensation gap based on the full financial year and reporting on partner bonus schemes. It also suggests firms outline their pay figures in three separate reports: one covering all employees, with the other two detailing employee and partner figures separately.

The guidance also says firms with fewer than 250 staff should be obliged to report their gender pay figures. Government legislation introduced last year ensures all employers with over 250 staff detail their gender pay disparity, however the regulations do not include the mandatory publication of partner gay gaps. The Law Society is also pressing for accompanying action plans on how firms will address gaps.

‘Law firms can get ahead of the curve by assessing and tackling the range of pay gaps that may exist in their organisation,’ said Law Society president Christina Blacklaws. ‘We have worked with the profession to develop a common set of standards that provide the level of transparency expected by firms’ clients, people and the public.’

Law firms have this year been criticised for sluggish progress on tackling gender pay disparity. Pinsent Masons senior partner Richard Foley in March called for changes to the gender pay reporting regime ahead of next year, saying there was a perception hardening that lawyers and accountants are trying to duck the issue by not publishing their partner numbers.

Since then, Clifford Chance (CC) and Allen & Overy (A&O) have been among those to publish partner pay figures, with neither making for inspiring reading.

Macfarlanes, meanwhile, was the latest firm to disclose its pay gap at the partner level, revealing an average gap of 55% at the top, while the median figure made for starker reading at 73%.

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19 November 2018 – Sheffield (Riverside East House, 2 Millsands, S3 8DT)

12 November 2018 – Leeds (2 Wellington Place, LS1 4BZ)

22 November 2018 – Bristol (One Castlepark Tower Hill, BS2 0JA)

22 November 2018 – Newcastle (Wellbar Central, 36 Gallowgate, NE1 4TD)

26 November 2018 – London (40 Holborn Viaduct, EC1N 2PZ)

27 November 2018 – Gatwick (Belmont House, Station Way, Crawley, RH10 1JA)

29 November 2018 – Manchester (One St. Peter’s Square Manchester, M2 3AF)

04 December 2018 – Southampton (Brunel House, 21 Brunswick Pl, SO15 2AQ)

05 December 2018 – Birmingham (Imperial House, 31 Temple St, B2 5DB)

If you would like to attend an open evening at one of Irwin Mitchell’s offices, please send your CV and a covering letter to Craig Thompson, Head of Graduate Recruitment at [email protected] with the subject line ‘request to attend an open evening in [office]’.

Within your covering letter, please include details of:

• why you are interested in hearing more about Irwin Mitchell at the selected office
• which stream you are most interested in hearing about and your reasons why

Spaces are limited so the firm will advise you on whether your application has been successful a week in advance of the open evening.

1. Qatari firm buys London’s Grosvenor House hotel [via The Guardian]

2. PepsiCo launches bid for Pipers Crisps [via BBC News]

3. Amazon to split second headquarters into two locations – report [via The Guardian]

4. Persimmon boss pushed out over £75m bonus row [via Sky News]

5. Girl Scouts sue Boy Scouts over planned name change [via BBC News]

The Department for International Trade had opened consultations on its tactics for free trade agreements (FTAs) with Australia, New Zealand, the USA and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

It said FTAs offered opportunities to include certain provisions such as ‘standards, licensing and recognition of qualifications.’

The SRA said in response: ‘Recognition of professional qualifications should not be based on reciprocity but assessed on a case-by-case basis, to ensure that consumers’ interests are protected, and any restrictions are targeted and proportionate.

‘We need to balance the advantages of an open and competitive market in legal services against the need for practitioners to be competent to practise as solicitors of England and Wales.’

Currently, the SRA offers the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS) as a means for foreign lawyers from recognised jurisdictions to qualify as solicitors in England and Wales.

In September 2020, the QLTS will be replaced by the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), a new standardised admission process which drew controversy from the profession due to its simplified nature .

The SRA asserted ‘through the SQE we will assess the competence of all candidates, both domestic and international on a comparable basis.’

Such scepticism from the SRA contributes to a largely ambiguous forecast of the UK’s legal sector in a post-Brexit world. In September, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published guidance with the conclusion that if no deal is reached with the EU, the UK will have to rely on domestic common law rules currently applied to cases involving non-EU countries for cross-border disputes.

And in an ironic announcement unlikely to inspire confidence, the MoJ also recommended that those likely to be involved in civil cases on 29 March 2019 should seek legal advice.

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What will it involve?

The day will be packed full of activities including: handling work in one of our departments, interactive spotlight presentations on our practice areas and life as a trainee, taking part in skills workshops to prepare you for application season and attending networking events.

Who should apply?

The Insight Day is open to students in their penultimate or final year studying law or final year of a non-law degree. If you have a genuine interest in a career in law and are looking for a firm which is innovative, ambitious and friendly then we are keen to hear from you.

How to apply?

Please visit rpc.co.uk/strikinglyreal and complete the online application form. Applications must be received before 17.00 on 8 November 2018.

Questions?

Please email Chloe Rowan: [email protected]

The promotion round, effective of January next year, sees a notable increase in associates making the cut in London, with just two being made up last year in the City. Globally the firm’s 31 promotions equal last year’s round, which saw New York receive the lion’s share of promotions.

While London outstripped New York this year, Manhattan still saw six associates make partner with corporate and tax being the primary beneficiaries. Overall, 21 lawyers were promoted across the firm’s US branches in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Houston.

Meanwhile, European promotions meanwhile dwindled from three last year to just one this year, with Max Hauser being minted in Frankfurt. There were also no promotions in Asia this time around, whereas two were made up last year.

The firm’s corporate and finance practices unsurprisingly made up the majority of the firm’s City promotions, with six and three associates being promoted in the practices respectively. Globally, 23 of the 31 promotions came in either corporate (14) or finance (nine).

Peter Gilhuly, chair of the firm’s associates committee, said progression at Latham is the culmination of a multi-year process that involves ongoing professional development, business planning, formal evaluations, and informal feedback. The committee, which comprises roughly half partners and half associates, recommends promotions to partner and counsel each year.

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1. Frankie & Benny’s owner to buy Wagamama in £559m deal [via Sky News]

2. Can Trump end birthright citizenship by executive order? [via The Week] 

3. Uber challenges ruling on drivers’ rights at court of appeal [via The Guardian] 

4. Asia Bibi: Pakistan court overturns blasphemy death sentence [via The Guardian] 

5. Facebook: MPs in new attempt to question Mark Zuckerberg [BBC News]

6. WH Smith finally realises its American dream [The Times]

7. Pharmaceutical company charged after death and illnesses of babies at hospitals across UK [via The Telegraph]

An announcement to the London Stock Exchange on 29 October confirmed Gordon Dadds had agreed to acquire all of Ince, including its international LLP. The new firm, to be called Ince Gordon Dadds, will jump into the UK top 40 with revenue of more than £110m, and have 100 partners across offices in nine countries.

Gordon Dadds managing partner and chief executive Adrian Biles (pictured) will lead the new firm with support from Ince’s chairman, Peter Rogan. It will be headquartered in Ince’s Aldgate Tower offices in London. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Ince Gordon Dadds will become the UK’s largest listed law firm by revenue, eclipsing Gateley. The total paid for Ince is expected to be £34m, which equates to a percentage of the turnover generated by Ince’s equity partners over the next three years.

Biles commented: ‘The merger will build upon the complementary strengths of the two firms in terms of industry expertise and range of services. Our management model will also allow Ince’s partners and fee earners to focus even more on providing market leading legal advice to a stellar client base.’

Rogan added: ‘This is an exciting day for us at Ince, with this cutting-edge deal being very much in line with our long-established strategy. I’m proud that the Ince name will continue and am very excited to be moving forward together as part of this innovative new structure with access to new capital allowing us to gain greater competitive advantage in the market.’

As part of the deal, Ince partners will each receive a minimum guaranteed amount in the first year based on budgeted turnover. Gordon Dadds will also settle the £9.1m capital and current account balances due to Ince partners, bringing the total value of the deal to more than £43m.

Today’s announcement comes a month after the two confirmed merger talks. Earlier this year, Biles told Legal Business the firm had its sights on becoming a ‘nine-figure’ business after its acquisition of Thomas Simon. He was seeking a ‘scale transaction’ involving the buyout of an underperforming £20m to £40m firm: a tie-up with Ince has taken that ambition to a different level.

Ince, meanwhile, has suffered a number of setbacks this year. First, the marine and insurance specialist lost a four-partner team to sector rival Clyde & Co in Hamburg in February. Then, in July, Ince made 25 business services staff and seven fee-earners redundant.

The biggest setback came in August, when the firm’s senior partner, Jan Heuvels, stepped down from his position after being relocated to Hong Kong.

Ince’s tumultuous year was underlined by a poor financial performance: it shed 6% of its revenues, falling to £83.4m. Profit per equity partner (PEP) remained flat at £256,000.

Gordon Dadds shares will remain suspended pending further clarification on the final terms and conditions and financing of the proposed merger.

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The initiative, called Future Law, is expected to generate revenue this year and will be led by digital sector head James Touzel. The firm has ring-fenced the fund as part of its budget for this year.

Touzel told Legal Business that dedicated budget and internal resource would allow it to try new technology and ideas more quickly than getting bogged down in presenting business cases as part of the normal governance process. The firm’s business services professionals and fee earners will be involved.

‘If you’re doing innovation no one has a clue what the return on investment is yet, that’s the whole point,’ he said. ‘This will be an educated playing around: identifying the client need, trying a few things out, getting the one that works and rolling it out.’

Future Law will complement TLT’s captive shared services centre, launched in 2015, and a regulatory consulting service it launched in the last year with the hire of former BT regulatory affairs director Stuart Murray. The firm also partnered with AI contract review company LegalSifter last December, taking a minority stake in the business.

Touzel said Future Law was implemented in response to changing client expectations in the last year or so. The largest clients had effectively built their own law firms in-house and were facing the same challenges around people, process and technology that law firms had faced for decades.

‘There is no reason why a law firm cannot, and should not, be a consultant on how to run in-house legal functions. The next change will come in advising which technology to use. What’s the best e-discovery platform? We should be able to answer that question.’

TLT will resell technology to clients, similar to the LegalSift partnership. It wants to partner with other early stage tech companies to improve their products, as well as advise and sell mature technology in areas it could be used more effectively.

Touzel said there would be a few early wins this year around new offerings in e-discovery and contract automation, but the aspiration was to create multiple business models at the firm by selling more technology and more consultancy services. The firm’s revenue rose 10% to £82m in the most recent financial year.

‘The consistent message from clients is that they are getting increasingly frustrated with law firms bringing forward products that they don’t need. We’re trying to start off on the right foot,’ Touzel said. ‘This isn’t a model I’ve invented, it happens in other industries: it’s just legal catching up.’

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Mullins returns to ITV having previously been its group legal director between 2000 and 2007. She also had spells as GC at EMI Music and energy company Mitie before joining budget airliner easyJet in 2015.

ITV’s chief executive Carolyn McCall commented: ‘Kyla brings great commercial and strategic experience and acumen as well as a proven track record in the media and entertainment sectors. I am sure she will be a great addition to the management board and a fantastic leader for her team.’

Mullins’ arrival fills a crucial gap in ITV’s in-house legal team after the departure of former GC Garard in the summer. He joined ITV as GC in 2007 and continued to provide assistance to ITV after his departure, including helping the company find his replacement.

Garard oversaw a key ITV panel review in May 2015, which sought to extend its eight-firm roster by up to four more. Historically, firms including DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells and Reed Smith have advised ITV.

Mullins is replaced at easyJet in an interim capacity by Clifford Chance (CC) partner Daud Khan. Khan was only promoted to the Magic Circle firm’s partnership in May this year and was based in CC’s London office, focusing on corporate and M&A.

Khan’s highlight matters at CC include advising BBVA’s investment in Atom Bank’s £149m capital raising and Chinese conglomerate Fosun on an investment in travel agent Thomas Cook.

In December 2015, easyJet lost its then-head of legal and compliance, Andrew Winterton, to taxi app company Karhoo. Winterton had been in his position for nearly a decade after joining from Virgin Atlantic Airways. The former Clyde & Co lawyer was succeeded in his position by Rebecca Mills.

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